Supporting students’ speaking
and listening skills
Many students from refugee backgrounds may have had little or no previous formal schooling
or have had significant interruptions to their schooling. Such experiences impact on important
language and literacy learning and as a result some students may not be literate in their first
language. Developmentally, oral language comes before written language so skills in listening
and speaking precede reading and writing. Indeed, students may have strengths in oral
language that can be used to support the more formal elements of written English. Using
existing listening and speaking skills and strengthening them provides a tool for learning and
a foundation for literacy development. For students whose education pathways have been
constant, but are learning English as an additional language, focusing on speaking and listening
skills is also of great importance.
Listening Strategies
As key foundations for literacy and language development, listening and speaking skills are
important skills in their own right. Students need opportunities to practise using these skills
in a range of ways from informal conversation, to more formal verbal presentations alongside
practising learning strategies such as problem solving through listening and speaking. It is
important for students to be able to distinguish between informal communication in a social
environment and more formal, complex language, used to discuss abstract concepts. It is the
more formal and complex oral language that students need to develop for successful schooling.
Tutor Strategies
• speak clearly but naturally, pausing often
• use simple vocabulary to introduce new concepts
• avoid or explain idioms and acronyms: ‘lend a hand’; ‘knock off’
• Use gestures, visuals or objects to support listening
• Write key words and instructions out so the student can look, as well as, hear them
• Repeat when necessary
• Check understanding by observing and interacting and asking questions such as, ‘What?,
When?, Where?, Who?’;
• Draw on first language and other language skills as a resource for second language learning:
drawing on memorisation and classifying skills
• build on knowledge and experience
• encourage students to ask for clarification if they don’t understand
• provide clear and explicit instructions.
Speaking Strategies
Encourage students to spend time speaking to you. Be mindful of how much time you are
speaking versus your student: keep tutor talk time to a minimum and increase student talk time.
Focussing on speaking practice also offers an opportunity to build on cultural traditions of oral
story telling which many students may be familiar with. Encouraging pride in this tradition
can be a useful tool in providing students with the confidence needed for preparing class
presentations or other formal speaking activities. Also be aware of the range of spoken text
types that students can practice, detailed in the following table.
TRAINING
RESOURCES
Rehearsed
More structured
Spontaneous
More polished
Sculptural
Debates
Interviews
Conversation
Role playing
Storytelling
Oral reports
Directions
Brainstorming
Improvising
Readers
Theatre
Presentations
Instructions
Exploratory talk
Monologue
Prepared
dramatic
presentations
Tutor Strategies
• Provide encouragement and practice to develop confidence
• Explore where and when students speak English so you can understand their prior knowledge
of language use
• Model clear speaking and encourage students to practise clear speaking: songs and verse
support enunciation
• Model and practise turn taking
• Allow enough ‘wait time’ for your student to process English and formulate a response
• Be clear about what target language you are listening for: ‘I am listening to the way you
pronounce the final sounds in these words’
• Practise using body language that supports intended text meaning
• Practise adapting language to context: use informal / formal language as appropriate
• Practise different registers: informal interpersonal language; formal academic language
• Use language to communicate a number of functions: apologising; greeting; reporting; asking
for clarification; giving instructions, directions, explanations and descriptions; stating cause
and effect; expressing preferences and opinions
• Focus on conveyance of clear meaning, including body language, tone and spoken English,
rather than highlight errors
• Use speaking time to recycle vocabulary
• Model and provide opportunities for exploratory talk to stimulate thinking: to explore; clarify
concepts; question; hypothesise; make deductions and respond to others’ ideas
• Make links with school-based learning